of 8-year-old jaiden haber wears n-word t-shirt to school

Amityville school targets 2nd-grader's 'N-word' T-shirt: Jaiden Haber wears a T-Shirt that reads

N the 'N' Word. It's time!

A gym teacher noticed Jaiden's shirt and sent her to the principal, who asked her to change into a school shirt because hers was a "distraction".


Jaiden Haber, 8, with her mother, Karen Haber, at their home in Amityville. Jaiden is wearing the shirt she was wearing when she was asked by the school to change.

Second-grader Jaiden Haber was sent to the principal's office -- not for bad behavior, but for her T-shirt's slogan.

Last week, the principal told Jaiden, 8, to change her shirt, which read, "N the 'N' Word" and "It's time!"

Jaiden's mother, Karen, 45, said teachers at Northwest Elementary in Amityville should have "seized the moment" to discuss the shirt because it aimed to encourage tolerance.

But district superintendent John Williams said the word's inflammatory effect outweighed the shirt's potential educational value. He said Amityville schools strive to regularly instill cultural lessons.

However, Tara Keenan-Thomson, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union's Nassau chapter, said Jaiden's First Amendment rights were violated. Tara said,

All students have the right to wear what they want, and this does not stop at the school gates, regardless of content or how old she is.

Karen Haber, Jaiden's mother, said she received some of the shirts from Intrigue Concepts Inc., of Roosevelt, as payment for work done. She distributed 17 of them during Jaiden's birthday party in school a month ago.

[via Detention Slip]